A Theological Tidbit on I Corth. 11:10

[rgcraig]

A friend of mine sent this in a round of emails and I wanted to share it here for discussion. (with his permission)




Speaking of the woman's "glory", here's another theological tidbit that I found interesting. Some of you may remember some years ago (decades?) a pop teaching in the UPC was that when a woman cuts her hair an angel dies? (Based on 1 Co. 11:10a, which uses the phrase "because of the angels".)

In any case, a much more sensible explanation of that obscure phrase was offered by Bruce Winter (Cambridge University, a specialist in Roman culture). Most of the difficulty in this phrase comes from translating the word as "angel" rather than "messenger". This same term was used in the Roman Empire to refer to human information-gatherers who reported on unusual activities that might be construed to have political significance.

Winter says, "In the case of a colony [i.e., Corinth] with special loyalty to Rome, watching strange or foreign religion was all the more important." The decorum of Christian women in congregational meetings would need to be such that their public speaking would arouse no suspicion of fomenting anti-Roman sentiment.

Paul concludes his discussion, of course, by addressing the issue over whether Corinthians should be veiled for public prayer or speech. If Roman male pagans drew up their togas over their heads to pray or if women threw off the married veil (which functioned, more or less, like a wedding ring does today), they were signaling that they embraced a value system in conflict with their Christian beliefs.

Winter's comments on this and other passages in 1 Corinthians are extremely insightful.

Check out Winter's After Paul Left Corinth: The Influence of Secular Ethics and Social Change (Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2001).